The pastor of a Texas megachurch has resigned after a woman said he had sexually abused her on multiple occasions in the 1980s, starting when she was 12.
Gateway Church’s board of elders announced on Tuesday that they had accepted the resignation of Robert Morris, the church’s senior pastor and founder. They also stated that they had hired a law firm to conduct an independent review to gain a complete understanding of the events that occurred from 1982 to 1987.
The allegations were brought to light on Friday by the religious watchdog blog The Wartburg Watch.
Cindy Clemishire, the accuser, shared with The Dallas Morning News in an interview on Saturday that she first met Morris in 1981 when he was a traveling preacher who began preaching at her family’s church in Oklahoma. She mentioned that Morris, along with his wife and young son, became close to her family.
Clemishire recounted that in 1982, while Morris was staying at her house, he asked her to come to his room. She explained that he instructed her to lay on his bed and then proceeded to touch her inappropriately. The abuse continued for around four-and-a-half years, according to Clemishire, who is now 54 years old.
The Associated Press follows a policy of not naming individuals who report being sexually assaulted unless they choose to come forward publicly, as Clemishire has done.
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When approached by The Christian Post about the allegations, Morris, aged 62, admitted in a statement that in his early 20s, he engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where he was staying.
“It involved kissing and petting, but no intercourse, although it was still wrong,” Morris stated. “This behavior occurred several times over the following years.”
The board indicated that before Friday, they were unaware of all the facts regarding the inappropriate relationship between Morris and the victim, including her age at the time and the duration of the abuse. They mentioned that their understanding of the “extramarital relationship” Morris had talked about during his ministry did not involve “abuse of a 12-year-old child.”
Gateway Church, located in the Dallas suburb of Southlake, was established by Morris in 2000 and has various branches in the area, boasting over 100,000 attendees each weekend.
Morris, the church’s founding pastor, has been active in politics and was part of former President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board. The church hosted Trump at its Dallas campus in 2020 for a dialogue on race relations and the economy.
Morris did not provide an immediate response to a request for comment sent to his email at the church.
Related: Southern Baptists reject formal ban on churches with women pastors
